FAQ's | How does SEO Work | SEO Information

Get a Review of Your Website Now

Find Out How To Get Onto Page One Of Google

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
01252 329160
[email protected]

Frequently asked questions

 

If you have any questions about getting your website onto page one of Google, or want to know more about how SEO works, you should find the answer below, if not, send us an email to [email protected] and we will answer your question straight away and include it on this page for anyone else who has the same question.

Why should I use Total SEO?

Total SEO are the ideal choice for helping businesses get found on Google, we have been established since 2004, our team are based at our head office in Hampshire and we never outsource work, it is all done in-house.

We also have a proven track record of achieving fantastic results for our clients and will happily provide references so you can speak to current clients to ask them about their experience of working with us, please also check out our Testimonials page.

Can you help with social media (Facebook/Instagram)?

Yes, we can include optimising and promoting your social media pages, including writing daily posts on Facebook, Instagram and Linked In (all posts are approved by you before they are published), and if you don’t currently have a social media presence we can take care of creating one for you.

We tailor every SEO campaign to match each clients individual social media needs and will ensure we do all we can to promote your business in the most effective way possible.

Do you offer any other services?

Yes, as well as search engine optimisation we can also help with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, social media management, website design and development, content writing and copywriting and website hosting on our super fast, reliable server. More details about the other services we offer can be found in the menu at the top of this page.

How do I pay?

When you decide to go ahead with the SEO campaign we take payment for the first month at the start, most of our clients pay by debit or credit card, but you can also do a bank transfer or a PayPal payment, following this we will send an invoice monthly with your keyword ranking report.

How do I get started?

It’s easy, first request a free website SEO review (at the top of the page), we will email you with a proposal and review of your site, if you want to get the ball rolling simply email us back or call us.

It is very straightforward to get your SEO campaign underway, we just need to agree on the keywords and obtain access to the website or get details of who looks after the site.

Or you can use these links to make contact with us:
Tel: 01252 329160
Email: [email protected]

Will my sales/enquiries/orders improve?

When your website makes it onto page one of Google you should see a big improvement in visitor numbers, enquiries and sales/orders, however, if your site isn’t as appealing and engaging as it could be, you may not see a huge improvement.

We will work with you to ensure you get the maximum amount of conversions from your increased website traffic,

We address this at the start of the campaign by putting together a constructive critique and a plan of what needs to be done to get your website converting at the highest level, this goes hand in hand with being on page one of Google for keywords that are important to your business.

Are there any setup costs or hidden charges?

No, we don’t charge any set up costs and there are no hidden charges.

What if I want to stop?

You can stop at any time, without any penalties.

However, all we ask is that your invoices are up to date.

Am I tied into a contract?

No, we don’t have any contracts or other tie ins. If you want to stop, you can at any time. All we ask is that we are given 28 days’ notice in writing to your Account Manager, as per our terms and conditions, which can be found here.

We want our clients to stay with us because they are happy with the results we are achieving for them, not because they are trapped in a contract they can’t get out of.

How long do I need to keep doing SEO for?

As the results don’t come overnight it is important to view SEO as a slightly longer term marketing strategy.

It makes sense to initially allow around three months to measure the results and success, from there you can take a view as to whether you continue or whether we adapt the strategy and keywords we are targeting, if you want to stop, you can, at any time, without any charges or penalties.

How do you measure success?

Our aim is to get your website ranking well in Google and the other search engines, this in turn should improve your visitor numbers, enquiry levels and sales/orders, we hope to grow your business and show you an excellent return on your investment in SEO. We also provide monthly reporting in order for you to be able to monitor progress.

What results can I expect?

Our aim is to get as many of the keywords that we are targeting onto page one of Google and the other major search engines as possible, the more work we do to grow trust, authority and momentum, the better the results should get.

Most of our clients get excellent front page coverage that makes a real difference to visitor numbers, enquiry levels and new sales/orders.

Do you provide reports?

We believe it is important to provide a benchmark and measure progress in a clear and transparent way.

We provide monthly keyword ranking reports that show where every keyword we are working on is appearing in the major search engines, the report also shows the movement for each keyword compared to the previous month as well as a summary detailing how many keywords are in the top 10, top 20, top 30 and so on.

We send you a PDF version as well as access to an online portal which contains even more data for you to look at.

If you like to have more detailed reporting, we can also provide data on visitor numbers and their behaviour and the links we have built, this is optional depending how much data you would like.

Do you get involved in Blackhat SEO?

Blackhat SEO involves using techniques to optimise a website that are against Googles guidelines on best practice SEO, Blackhat SEO can result in quick front page rankings, but often ends up in sites being penalised by search engines.

As a long term strategy Blackhat SEO is a bad idea and it can damage your website rankings permanently. We only use SEO techniques that are Whitehat and fall in line with Googles own guidelines on SEO best practice, this means there is no risk of any penalties from the work we do,

Everything we do is designed to grow trust and authority with the search engines and help your site get to the front page and stay there for the long term. Find out 10 reasons why Google will penalise your website here.

What other SEO work do you do?

As well as on-site changes, content writing and publication and link building, there is a wide range of other SEO work we undertake to ensure the very best results.

Some of the main areas of work include: Competitor Analysis, Traffic Analysis, Broken Link Checks, Keyword Analysis and Research, Image Optimisation, Google Places, Maps and a whole lot more.

If you would like a detailed proposal setting out all of the work we would do to get your website ranking high in Google simply complete the Website SEO Review form at the top of this page.

We create up to 15 backlinks per month, sourced from trusted websites such as directories, forums, and user profiles so that when Google crawls these pages, they offer a legitimate source of website traffic. Backlinks offer a signal to search engines to aid your ranking position and search visibility.

It is worth noting that the landscape of Google is ever-changing and link building is something that has taken a slight back seat in recent times due to a high percentage of websites cutting corners and abusing the art of link building (typically through black hat SEO). It’s important to remember, however, that once created we no longer have any autonomy over them; they may be removed due to server issues, the site may update and be removed, etc.

Consequently, as Google Premier Partners who strictly abide by Google’s best practices, we will only focus on acquiring backlinks that will be seen in a positive light by the Search Engines and source up to 15 backlinks per month (this is due to organic growth, a sudden spike in links can have a negative impact on your rankings in the long term. It can appear suspicious to Google if the backlink portfolio suddenly spikes out of nowhere).

There are two sides to backlinks, we also look at any existing backlinks that you have to ensure there are no toxic links from spammy sites. If there are any, we can disavow these links to the website. I would like to reiterate, the on-site SEO work we provide is the main focus and backlinks are an added addition to the campaign.

What content/articles do you write?

By publishing original, well-written, unique content to your website on a regular basis will help to grow the authority of the site in the eyes of the search engines.

The more regular & steadily content is added, the more often you’ll get crawled by the search engines. When combined with other SEO work, such as link building and other on and off-site SEO work, this can really help build up the momentum to get the site moving up the search results.

We have a team of in-house copywriters who are experts at creating powerful articles that are designed to get the search engines taking an interest in what is being published.

All content is sent to you for approval before it is published on site.

What changes will you make to my website?

We don’t make any changes that your visitors will see (unless you ask us to), all the changes we make are designed to make the site as search engine friendly as possible,

Usually we will change things like meta titles, meta descriptions, sitemaps, Robots.txt, internal linking, image tags and any content that needs rewriting (we would consult you about this first), in addition we like to have a news or blog area on the site to publish the new content/articles we will write for you (all content is approved by you before being published to the site).

Will you need to access my website?

Ideally we would like to have access to a website to work on it.

However, this isn’t always possible and in some cases we simply work directly with whoever looks after the website to ensure the necessary SEO changes are made on-site, if we can’t have direct access to the website, it isn’t a problem and we can still carry out the work.

How many keywords can I have in an SEO campaign?

At the start of a campaign we spend time researching the best keywords for your business to appear on page one of Google for, it is vital to have a list that we are confident we can get on page one of Google and you are happy will put your website in front of the right audience.

The number of keywords/phrases we can target varies depending on a number of factors, including the size of the website, but as a guide, we usually target between 20-50 keywords/phrases.

What keywords do you target?

We can target whatever keywords you want, so long as they are relevant and specific to the website and service/product you offer, we will always provide our own research, input and ideas on the best keywords to get onto page one of Google.

By working closely with our clients we always come up with a good list of words and phrases that everyone is happy with.

How much does SEO cost?

It varies depending on what keywords you want to get onto page one of Google for and the level of competition for the phrases as to the amount of time and resources that will need to be put into a campaign.

Please complete the website SEO review form at the top of this page and we will come back to you with a proposal and cost, we will usually come back to you within two hours during normal office hours, otherwise it will be the next day.

How long does it take?

In terms of timescales with SEO it is all about building up trust, authority & momentum with Google. It would be unethical and ill-advised to guarantee specific organic results within specific time frames. Some keywords will move quicker and some will take longer, think of Google like a league table against your competitors.

A number of factors should be considered, including the following: current baseline traffic, website design, domain age, meta descriptions, geographic location, competition, and target market and content. These all play into how quickly you can gain search engine traffic from SEO.

For example if you have a new website, a new domain name & fresh content without a business history, then you would expect the results to take longer than other sites.

Generally speaking, websites can see results in 4-6 months. Obviously, SEO results grow over time. The traction you’ll get between 4 to 8 months is typically less than what you should be experiencing at 12 months.

As per industry standards, it usually takes 6-12 months to get the right results when you opt for professional SEO services. The reason for that is, we rely entirely on white-hat SEO techniques which take time to get on track. However, some of our clients have obtained results in less than 3 months with our local marketing.

How does SEO work?

SEO is all about making the search engines trust a website, in essence, the more a search engine trusts and likes a site, the higher it will place it in the search results.

Gaining trust is achieved by building up momentum from making websites as search engine friendly as possible, and carrying out other SEO work such as writing and publishing new content, building new links from related websites and making on-site changes to code and on-page content.

Over time, search engines will see an increase in positive activity, this creates a snowball effect, which should cause the site to start moving up the search results, by keeping up this momentum the site should continue to keep moving up the rankings.

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation is the technique of making websites rank high in the major search engines natural results (not to be confused with the paid adverts) for phrases that are important and relevant to your business,

For example a “Plumber in London” or a “Florist in Southampton” would want their website to be on page one of Google, Yahoo and Bing when people search for this and related phrases to help them get more new business from being found by potential customers online.

Consultation
Watch our video: How Long Does SEO Take?

 
 
Watch our video: SEO by Numbers

Tell us about your website

We love looking at websites and will tell you how to improve your Google position.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Tell us about your website

We love looking at websites and will tell you how to improve your Google position.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
MENU